7/28/2019 4/15/2013 Gallup Ind: Power to the People - Eagle Energy Sheds Light on Navajo Sheep Camps

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Power to the people; Eagle Energy sheds new light on Navajo sheep camps

By Kathy HelmsDine Bureau

navajo1@gallupindependent.comBODAWAY/GAP If you want to make an elderly Navajo grandma smile, hand her a small solar light, and as she's turningit over and around in her brown, age-spotted hands, examining every detail, tell her you've come to install it on herouthouse.

Jane Deering Wilson, 91, sat on the couch at her winter sheep camp, holding on to her wooden cane while the house filledwith visitors from Denver-based Eagle Energy and the local grassroots group, Forgotten People. Every October Wilson andher children bring the sheep out to the camp, located about 45 miles from Old Cedar Ridge near the Grand Canyon, and staythere until the early part of May, when they move their herd back to summer camp.

As the visitors explained to Wilson that they had come to bring her free solar lights for her home, a cloud of suspicioncrossed her face. But when the visitors reassured her and her daughter, Alice Dougi, that not only was she going to get freelights for inside the home, but a light for the front of the house and another for the outhouse so she could find it easily in thedark, a smile tugged at the corners of her mouth and she finally broke into a wide grin. She was either pleased, or shethought these young bilagaanas had a screw loose somewhere.

According to Bessie Wilson, who interpreted for the non-Navajo-speaking visitors, Grandma Jane was very happy and knew

just what she was going to do with the money she would save on buying propane for her lanterns.

She said that money is going to be used toward hauling water for her livestock, because this reservoir down here started todry up around early March and they have to haul water from the Gap. It takes three trips to fill the 1,000-gallon tank.

Jane Wilson and Dougi are weavers. Dougi told Bessie that a long time ago, just over the hill from the house, the Spanishwere coming to take back their sheep. Her great-great grandpa sat behind the hill with a flock of sheep where he prayed tothe four corners of the world, and the Spanish the outriders turned around against the hill and went back the other way.They retrieved part of their herd, but not all of it, because grandpa was sitting with the sheep behind the hill.

Those were Churro mixed with the Spanish herd. Much later in the generation, the grandpa, who was a Council delegate'sson, bought rams from the white people and then he inter-breeded them with all of the flocks out this way. With the Churrosheep, the wool didn't weigh enough for them to make a profit and so he introduced the rams from the white people so the

wool would weigh more, would be more oily.

Bessie said the family uses Coleman lanterns to light the room so they can weave in the evening. The propane cylinders area little over $5 from Walmart, and to travel to Walmart, it's over 100 miles.

When asked whether it was profitable for the family to raise sheep, Bessie said, Living out here, living the life that they do,it's not about profit. It's about traditional way of life. And this solar is going to improve their lives, both financially as wellas their health.

MISSION: LIGHTSForgotten People and Eagle Energy received a grant from Grand Canyon Trust for the solar project. Eagle Energycontacted Forgotten People to collaborate for a grant because they saw the need in the former Bennett Freeze and HopiPartitioned Land and they wanted to help, Marsha Monestersky of Forgotten People said.

Then Forgotten People brought in Tuba City Regional Health Care Corporation as a partner. Were partnering with thehospital, with the CHRs, the PHNs, and the Injury Prevention Program. We are identifying elderly people in need, withoutany lights, and people that are low-income that are burning kerosene.

They also are applying for another grant to light up the inside of the outhouses in the former Bennett Freeze and HPL sopeople can go into the outhouse, flip a switch on the battery pack and have overhead lights, Monestersky said. EagleEnergy also is working with Melton Martinez in Eastern Navajo Agency on a solar project.

EAGLE TAKES FLIGHTDoug Vilsack, whose father is U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, started the non-profit Eagle Energy with the intent

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7/28/2019 4/15/2013 Gallup Ind: Power to the People - Eagle Energy Sheds Light on Navajo Sheep Camps

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of addressing energy needs on the Navajo Nation, where more than 18,000 families lack access to electricity. The small-scale solar products require little to no installation and offer power sources for Navajos living in scattered, remote locationswhere delivery of grid-based electricity is too expensive for utility companies to provide.

Doug Vilsack and Mike Dow of Eagle Energy, and volunteers Megan McPherson, Keyvan Izadi and his son, Masou, visitedthe Navajo Nation at the end of March to install Goal Zero 15-watt solar panels and LED lights at the homes of residents inthe former Bennett Freeze area. They also provided Sun King Pro desk lamps and small Nokero outdoor lights.

The whole purpose of the organization is to try to work with people to make these things available in shops and swapmeets and things like that around here as kind of an economic development tool. These first ones we're installing in thehomes of some elders for free just to make sure that we get some out there and that they all work well, and to try to generatemore interest, Vilsack said.

Rather than residents waiting for their chapter to install solar systems costing thousands of dollars, Vilsack said, the mid-range Goal Zero system, which can be purchased for around $200-$250, offers an option to kerosene or propane lights.

Although $200 is a lot of money, he said, People buy generators for $200 and this thing is going to run longer than mostgenerators and it's going to do pretty much what you need, he said.

The Ground Zero 15-watt solar panel and battery pack can run up to six lights, or a small, high-efficiency television, laptop,radio, DVD player, and even charge a cellphone or other small appliance. If you had six lights on this thing it would run all

night, every night, as long as you were getting some good Navajo sun, he said, and it will still charge on cloudy days.

REALLY 'FORGOTTEN'Masou Izadi, 6, who attends a Montessori school in Colorado, was happy to spend his spring break working on the NavajoNation. I am putting solar lights up in houses. We have two that are the same as the one that is hanging on the outhouse andright in front of the door, he said, while helping his dad at the home of Etta Wilson, located about 10 miles out a rocky,prairie dog-infested road from Bodaway/Gap.

Megan McPherson, who is working on her master's degree at the University of Colorado, recently was admitted to a Ph.D.program in Energy and Mineral Engineering. Hopefully I will be able to do something related research-wise to solarenergy implementation out here, either to improve indoor air quality or electrification, she said. I can't believe they'reburning coal for heat and cooking. It's 2013. It's wrong. Hopefully we can do something about it.

Etta used to have a large solar panel at the family homestead but somebody took off with it, she said, walking back towardthe house after inspecting the new beacon on the outhouse to light up the coyotes. The family had been away taking careof the sheep one weekend, and when they returned, We tried to turn on the light and no light. We were like, 'Whathappened?' And there, the panel was gone. I'm very happy we'll have lights this evening, she said.

In addition to being a master weaver, Etta also takes care of her mother, Anna Deering Wilson, 83, who has Alzheimer's.Because they don't have electricity for refrigeration, when they can afford it, they buy dry ice, put it in a paper sack and thencover it with a cloth and stick it underneath the food to keep it cold.

There is also a grand-baby in the house, Kayleigh, age 1-1/2, who needs fresh milk on a daily basis. I don't even know howthey do it, said Jannalee Atcitty, a relative. It's not just like where, if you're living near the road or the store, you think, 'I'mgoing to run to the store for fresh milk.' They have to utilize the shade and cool places where they can store food.

Etta's sister, Louise, said that when the Navajo Nation gets money from Washington, it goes to Window Rock. It doesn'tactually go to the people that are way out here. So all these people that are out here, that are struggling and are on their own,they don't help them. These are the real 'Forgotten People,' she said.